• Off the tracks?County must decide whether to scrap an overhaul

  Miami-Dade Transit has postponed a federally mandated overhaul of its 136 Metrorail cars that was due in 1999 -- a delay that has left the county with a $300 million repair bill.

• Driverless CarsCompany has lucrative deal for new Metromover vehicles

  Bombadier is working on a $26 million county contract to build 12 new Metromover cars, replacing the original driverless vehicles that went into service on the downtown loops in 1986.
  

After postponing a federally mandated overhaul of the aging Metrorail fleet for nine years, Miami-Dade commissioners on Tuesday reluctantly agreed to toss out $9 million in consulting fees and staff time spent on the rehab to buy new cars instead.

Commissioners, several of them angry at county managers and transit agency administrators, voted 8-2 to buy new cars with at least $345 million from the half-cent sales tax for transportation that voters approved in 2002.

"I think we all feel like this is a bitter pill we have to swallow, but swallow it we're going to have to do because we have to have a system that works," said Commissioner Katy Sorensen. "We can't continue to throw good money after bad."

Miami-Dade Transit's argument was based on economics. A new rail car, properly maintained, can be purchased for $2.54 million and last 30 years, versus $2.25 million to completely overhaul a current car, which would last 20 years.

The Transit agency now admits that it never had adequate funding to pay for the federally mandated midlife overhaul, which was due in 1999, of the original fleet.

"The fact of the matter is: We need to do it," Commissioner Natacha Seijas said. "They're falling apart."

Several generations of Transit directors and county managers didn't wave red flags seeking the rehab funds. It was scarcely mentioned to voters before they rejected a 1-percent sales tax for transportation in 1999 or during the successful half-penny campaign in 2002.

"Staff needs to be real clear when we're about to go over a cliff," Sorensen said. "I think there's a culture among the staff that they don't want to tell commissioners what they don't want to hear. Give it to us straight, in bright red letters."

The procurement process didn't start until 2003 and didn't reach a final price with the preferred bidder, Bombardier Mass Transit Corp., until November 2006.

'EVIL PROCESS'

County managers spent the next 16 months trying to decide whether it made more sense to move forward with the long overdue rehab contract or new cars.

Bombardier spent more than four years and an estimated $2 million preparing bids, attending technical review sessions and negotiating a pact -- all for naught.

Selection processes, like the one with Bombardier, are the reason why some major vendors won't do business with the county, said Commissioner Sally Heyman.

"We set the scope, and then we throw it out," Heyman said. "And we move forward because our staff is all employed and these businesses have to eat it and start again. Someone's got to stop this evil process."

The final tally was 8-2. Commissioners Javier Souto and Joe Martinez voted against the plan; Heyman, Audrey Edmonson and José "Pepe" Diaz missed the vote.

The new cars will be purchased with proceeds from the half-cent local sales tax voters approved in 2002. The agency would also lock in option prices for up to 62 more cars that would be needed for proposed Metrorail expansions.

BROKEN PROMISE?

Critics say that spending the sales-tax money to replace the 24-year-old Metrorail cars breaks a core promise of the 2002 campaign: New money would pay for additional, new trains, new rail lines, new buses and expanded routes.

The campaign also promised an independent citizens trust that would oversee all spending. But county staffers and commissioners outflanked the Citizens Independent Transportation Trust.

The CITT ratified a $188 million line-item for the rail-car rehab, among two dozen big-ticket requests from Transit, in 2003 at just its second meeting.

That estimate ballooned to more than $300 million as Transit tacked several expensive items -- including futuristic nose cones that commissioners were clamoring for -- into the bid documents.

"It was really unfair of them to put this on us then," said Marc Buoniconti, an original trust member and the only one who voted against the 2003 Transit wish-list of add-ons. "I knew this wasn't what was sold to the voters."

The CITT will be asked to bless the new-car strategy next week.